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Depending on your definition of "concrete" you might have a match in my character, Yukon. He's doing his best to save the community he's with (looking for someplace for them to go, and keeping track of any dangers on the road ahead), and he's definitely devoted to that cause.

Also, the community's sort of a band of non-human misfits and you could fit right in on that alone.

I guess it's time to introduce Ariellana, the Eladrin Warlord. You can call her Ree or Lana if the full name takes too long.

She's been working for a prominent trading company for several decades, traveling with and doing logistics for the caravans and boats the company runs. She was let go by the new owners when the former owner retired. It's been a while since she's been on her own. She's traveling now in order to look up contacts and maybe find a new job. However, she is open to opportunity. She is an idealist with a soft spot for the underdog. She is also a fan of history and wonders if the current situation is one of those great turning moments. If so, she either wants to watch up-close or be a part of the action.

Appearance and personality, if it matters:

Ariellana is about 6’ tall, about 175 lbs, raw-boned and muscular. She is not as lean or fine-featured as the average Eladrin. Her hair is fine and pale, nearly colorless. Unlike most Eladrin, she keeps it trimmed short. Her eyes are storm-gray, sometimes almost silvery and sometimes almost a dark blue. They are usually the color of winter storm clouds. Her skin is pale and lightly tanned. She has numerous small scars on her hands, arms, legs, and face, the result of an interesting life. Her hands are calloused and very capable-looking.

Ariellana does not have much use for rich people, aristocrats, incompetents, liars, or bigots. She is kind to those who seem to be down on their luck or who seem to be misfits. Sometimes she is too trusting, giving them a few too many chances before she moves them into the incompetent/liar category.

She is soft-spoken and quiet most of the time, yet fully able to command respect when it matters. She prefers to support others rather than be in charge. She will step in and do what’s necessary, though.

Ariellana sometimes does not know when to keep her mouth shut. She does not have enough sense to be afraid of the powerful and well-connected. Or, even though she might be afraid, she will do what she feels is right even though it will bring her to the attention of the wrong people.

Ariellana is pretty much fully assimilated into the human world. She doesn't know much at all about Eladrin culture.

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Ariellana has a pretty good strength, high intelligence, and decent dexterity. She'll mostly be a melee fighter doing the kind of damage you'd expect from a Defender role. I've picked the fairly typical powers for the Tactical Presence build -- commander's strike, wolf pack tactics, warlord's favor, lead the attack. They help by allowing a nearby ally to shift or do a basic melee attack, and by allowing nearby allies to gain power bonuses to attack rolls. She also does healing, better than the Paladin but not quite as good as the Cleric.

Most of the party will gain a +2 bonus to initiative (if they're within 10 squares and can see and hear me).

Ariellana isn't so great with anything requiring Wisdom or Charisma. She is not the one to use if you need diplomacy or perception, for example.

Anything else that might be handy to know? I haven't finalized my character sheet.

Any particular skills that Ariellana should train in for the Eladrin Education feature? I have it in Acrobatics for now. But maybe I should switch it to Thievery, so that someone can deal with traps. Traps and locks are not an unreasonable skill for someone who's been working with caravans, boats, warehouses, and the like. Does anyone else have Thievery as one of their trained skills?

Morgran, Umi PM'd me that you and I are both from the Deep Woods, do you think it would be plausible that your character is part of this group?

Definitely. In fact I'm rewriting part of my background to have me there for a while (1-2 years) before the migration if you don't mind. I think I'll have met up with you at some point during the migration instead of my initial plan (couldn't come up with a good way to write it and got tired of trying).

Any particular skills that Ariellana should train in for the Eladrin Education feature? I have it in Acrobatics for now. But maybe I should switch it to Thievery, so that someone can deal with traps. Traps and locks are not an unreasonable skill for someone who's been working with caravans, boats, warehouses, and the like. Does anyone else have Thievery as one of their trained skills?

I can get up to 8 acrobatics if I move a trained skill out of Healing (bringing it down to 4 from 9). Otherwise I have perception and nature covered, +11 to both of them. I'm also reasonably stealthy with +5 to the skill.

In what way, exactly, do you guys want me controlling the mooks? This is my first 4.0 campaign, so I lack any hard experience with how things work in-game.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Most of what I wrote was tongue-in-cheek. Several of us ought to have semi-decent dexterity, and thus semi-decent Acrobatics skill. Our ranger might take it as a trained skill depending on how the character works out.

In what way, exactly, do you guys want me controlling the mooks? This is my first 4.0 campaign, so I lack any hard experience with how things work in-game.

I too would be interested in advice. The game(s) I play tend to be pretty simplistic.

The general idea is to control by (a) blasting crowds of critters all at once, which tends to wreak havoc on the poor little 1-hp minions, (b) forcing or inspiring the enemy to move from where they want to be to where we want them to be, (c) doing mean things to the enemy so that we have combat advantage and they don't, and (d) doing mean things to them that will hurt them and/or make them unable to hurt us.

Forced movement of our enemies is good because we can dump them into pits or shove them off cliffs or pitch them into the fire zone or get them away from us. Movement (ours or the targets') can be good because we can flank and get combat advantage, or move a threatened ally out of range, or open up a clear zone for an ally's ranged or area attack.

It will be fun for us to come up with some gambits that play off our coordinated abilities. For example, the druid can slide a target, and the warlord allows allies to shift. We can get combat advantage that way, which will allow everyone to wallop the target more easily. If the target is marked by the paladin, it takes a penalty to its attack rolls as well as damage the first time it tries to defend itself against the barbarian. Some of our characters can provide bonuses to allies' attack or damage rolls while we're at it.

Another way to get combat advantage is the usual immobilizing, stunning, dazing, knocking prone, etc. We can also shove enemies out of cover and slide allies into cover as necessary.

I know the above is ABC-kindergarten stuff, probably too simplistic to those of you with a lot of RPG experience. I'm pretty new to all this. Part of why I'm playing a warlord is to learn how to think and plan these kind of synergistic maneuvers.

Would the more experienced players like to comment on the above, and also add more? Myn would like druid advice, and I'd certainly welcome warlord advice. What can we expect from the Barbarian/Sorcerer, the ranger, the paladin, and the cleric? How might we all help each other? How do we want to handle non-combat things such as skill challenges?

Pretty much what you can expect from me will center around getting in people's grill and keeping people out of squishy character's grills with Divine Challenge with a side of a little buffing (especially Wrath of the Gods at lvl 6 can't wait!).

Druids actually get an at-will ability that forces the enemy to give combat advantage to the next person to attack them. Although the rules seem a bit unclear as to whether I can only use it while I'm charging or at any time I choose.

That said, I should be able to set up combat advantage to consecutive enemies relatively easily, and the rest of my at-wills shift enemies around. I was just hoping you guys didn't need me to do a significant amount of area of effect damage, because I'm a bit weak in that regard.

Combat advantage without having to worry about getting into a good position :P

Originally Posted by Myn

Druids actually get an at-will ability that forces the enemy to give combat advantage to the next person to attack them. Although the rules seem a bit unclear as to whether I can only use it while I'm charging or at any time I choose.

That said, I should be able to set up combat advantage to consecutive enemies relatively easily, and the rest of my at-wills shift enemies around. I was just hoping you guys didn't need me to do a significant amount of area of effect damage, because I'm a bit weak in that regard.

QUOTE]Pretty much what you can expect from me will center around getting in people's grill and keeping people out of squishy character's grills with Divine Challenge with a side of a little buffing[/quote]

Cool! You also have some awesome skill bonuses. Intimidate will be handy, as will diplomacy. Your AC is also awesome. I think most of us will be squishy in comparison.

Druids actually get an at-will ability that forces the enemy to give combat advantage to the next person to attack them.

That will be handy, especially for the ranged/distance characters. It will also be great for the melee characters. Druid looks like it will be a really fun class to play.

significant amount of area of effect damage

From what I've read, druids' control methods don't include a lot of area of effect damage in comparison to some of the other controller classes. That's balanced by the way druids move around, move targets around, and help give combat advantage to others. They simply control in different ways than the other controller classes. Druids also do better at melee distances, while wizards do better at range. Or so I've read. It might all be BS for all I know. When I look at the class at-wills, druids do seem to have some good minion-clearing burst powers and some lasting area effects.

As far as I can tell, our group will have pretty good healing available, and pretty good ways of getting combat advantage or reducing the target's abilities, or both, on many rounds. We'll have two good strikers -- our ranger and our barbarian/sorcerer -- who said they can do both melee and ranged attacks. We have a good defender, and the druid and warlord have some defender-like attributes to act as a back-up. So, we'll work with our strengths. If we have significant weaknesses, we can figure out how to address them as our characters progress. Someone can multi-class or add a trained skill or something if it becomes necessary.